Discovering identity

Wherein lies our identity? To grasp the teaching of 1 Corinthians 12 – 13 we need to recognise:

We are not first and foremost individuals. Nothing in this passage validates the narcissistic quest of ‘discovering our personal gifts’. Truth is, we are often blinded by the powers and principalities that rip our families and communities apart. Even as Christians, we make the mistake of lauding people who gain profile and notoriety. But God sees our significance collectively. Individually, we are grains of salt. We are defined by being part of the bigger unit. Relationships of love, forgiveness, humbling ourselves and service are what are to define us as people who are part of something bigger than ourselves.

To grasp this as Biblical truth is immensely difficult and a huge challenge for people who belong to a western culture and context. It involves deep repentance. A turning out from introspection. And it has implications:

* Faith is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end. What matters is that we are transformed more into the image of the God who is Love. Faith challenges and changes us, as we look with hope to what we are becoming on this transformational journey.

* Christian faith is not belief about Jesus Christ. Christian faith is positive participation in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It is journey we enter into, through the portal of the Cross. A transformational journey that will continue throughout our life here on earth.

* Faith is an expression of desire that brings us to the place where we begin to open to the Spirit of God and find Him at work within our lives, releasing us into the ministry of the Jesus Christ whom we now find identify in. This is true identity discovered.

Resident Aliens

• The Bible is an exciting book – because, for us in our culture, it continues to present people with an alien culture. But this is a good thing. Because it challenges us to work out how the story of our lives can find a reference to the Jesus Christ that the Bible speaks about. I am tremendously excited about the way things are, here in Bristo, at present. I can see we are in a season of exciting transition. Why?
  
  Key is the way that we are seeking to do Christlike mission, rather than ‘gimmicky’ proselytisation. Real witness will make, longterm, real disciples. Our focus on disciple-shaping cell groups. The involvement in Bethany shelter and care-van. And for after Christmas –
  
  Our planning of a healing – counselling facility.
  The intiative with ALPHA and also developing a new concept-course, designed for people with serious questions: ‘TRY FAITH’.
  And not least, the ongoing and developing of strategy for the redevelopment or relocation of our facilities so that we make disciples on the basis of ‘doing mission’ rather than ‘seeking to attract’ people. May the invitation to purposeful participation in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ be attraction enough.

Discontent

We can only grow in Christ if we become discontent with who we are. Most times, this is not how it is. Many are fearful in ceasing to be who they are. And deafen the call.

To be of use to God we have to grow profoundly discontent. We have to yearn for deep change within. To really want to become more like Jesus.

Some imagine that Christian faith begins with believing about Jesus. But there is something even more basic. We have to become discontent with who, what and how we are. We have to begin a journey that does not simply recognise the Cross but that carries us into the Cross as the portal into resurrection life and witness. Pointing to the life that God is bringing us into.

Shining like stars

So, it's good to be back here, engaged in ministry with God's people. And we look forward to our new intern, Tanya, arriving from Voronezh as a sister in Christ, ready to share with us. We have been called by God to be distinctive. As I was reminded by her father (pictured with his daughter), from Daniel 12.3:

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

Let's focus on this, entering deeper into the light of Christ and not fearing the darkness that flees from His presence.

Impressions

Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time (Daniel 11.35)

I have been so blessed in this journey into Russia. The students in the seminary were gracious and friendly people, open to God. As one friend has put it, the Russian culture is inherently spiritual, rather than sensual. This means that, in the churches, there is a depth among the people. A quiet reserve with a genuine and generous heart beneath. This is what I have experienced in this country among lovely people.

It has been a joy and a delight to visit with the pastor and his family in Voronezh. To hear the story and see the evidence of lives formed in the midst of persecution – the pastor was born in a village in Kazakhstan, while his father was in prison for his faith. Again, so humbling to hear of how, when his father was again taken off to prison for 5 years in 1962 for being a Christian and therefore an enemy of the State, how he and his mother prayed until his father was released after 3 years. To sense the excitement when the first Russian Bibles for the church arrived from American Baptists in 1982. And the singing and harmonies, in home and in church, so beautiful.

Impressions are strange things. The nicest of elderly ladies, two in succession, just asked me for directions in Russian as I sat in the airport at this cafe. So polite. And many people here are so nice! Impressions are strange things. I also just bought the most expensive mineral water I’ve ever had: Moscow is a pricey place. But this is also the nicest and most modern airport I’ve ever been in. The security and passport controls so friendly and helpful. And Moscow is the nicest big city I’ve known. I found the environment safe and comfortable. And that has been true of all my time in Russia.

Dangerous things, impressions. The devil finds opportunities through false impressions. Misrepresentations, fear and hate bred and festered in an atmosphere of deceit. Far better to get first hand experience, and find out how things really are.

This is why one reason why the Word became flesh. He came to show people what God is REALLY like. And this is our job too. Why need to enter into holiness. To live our lives out of union with Jesus Christ, enabled by the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Then people will start to see something of God as He really is. Start to understand something of the Kingdom of God and the Gospel as it really is.

Forged by fire

Wisdom proclaimed. And Roses of Rememberance on a winter's day. Pathos shared.

It is always interesting to me to see how God speaks to me, in a fresh way, when I travel into Eastern Europe in ministry. The visit to Voronezh has proven no exception. Indeed, it has brought special blessing. Not only in meeting the families of former Bristo interns, Tima and Yulia, and the parents and siblings of our new intern Tania, who comes to Bristo in January. I so enjoyed the dignity and depth of the services, and found favour and enabling from God for preaching in both on the Sunday morning and evening, and in conversation with people. People appeared very receptive and engaged. Perhaps it is to do with the deep, latent spirituality of the Russian people, which a few decades of virulent demonic attack under communism could not wipe out; perhaps it was something special formed in the heart of this church, strengthened by God during persecution. Forgd by fire; and so committed to spiritual holiness and mission. Whatever the reason, God blessed the visit and spoke to me deeply on important matters.

Stoicho and I deeply appreciated conversation with the godly pastor of the church, Tanya’s father, Aleag Alexeev. He helped me gain insight into the style of Russian Baptist services, which last at least 2 hours, and where there are three of four sermons as well as times for open prayer, choral work and spiritual poetry.

The role of the first preacher is to present the Cross and the grace of God, drawing us into Jesus. This gives the people a reason for thanksgiving and a joy in coming to worship the living God. The role of the second preacher is to present teaching from the Bible, bringing us to focus on the Word of God. The role of the third preacher is to bring application of what has been preached into the lives of the people. And then there may be a 4th sermon, where one of the 3 who have preached is invited by the presiding elder to preach again, on the strength of wisdom expressed in their first sermon.

There is something to be learnt here, for the way we continually seek to develop a relevant and Christ centred ministry at Bristo. And I have no doubt that this is also but the beginning of a developing relationship with Baptists in this part of Russia’s heartland.

from Russia with love

Greetings from Moscow! Stoicho and I arrived here this afternoon, and are settling into the seminary. Tomorrow morning we are off to a church in the north of this great city of 20 - 25 million, to a church where the choir from Voronezh are singing together with others.

The first thing that strikes me about Moscow is how prosperous this city is! Yes, there may be poverty; but I haven't seen it yet. Far more western than Sofia! Strange, so similar and so familiar. This should be an interesting time.
Our hosts are lovely people. Here is Stoicho with me, outside the seminary.

Two sides of a coin

I've just been out for a wee walk before the sun goes down. I've been preparing materials for lectures in Moscow, next week. I'm teaching on 'The understanding of salvation'. Thinking about it.

For some people, it's so simple. They see the one side of a coin. The glorious truth of Father's love and mercy, and the full and effective atoning death of Jesus Christ, in bringing us back to God.

And for others, a quite different message. The other side of the coin. The call to turn back to a life worth living and a path worth pursuing. To invest our feeble lives in something worth expending ourselves for.

Blessed is the person who can see that every coin has two sides.

A journey forward

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast - as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
(1 Corinthians 5.7)

The central problem that Paul was dealing with among the Corinthians has been identified in 1 Corinthians 4.8: ‘we’ve arrived!’ This is continued in chapter 5, by this emphasis in 1 Corinthians 5.7, on the paschal lamb. We haven’t arrived. We’ve embarked on a journey.

Some people get to the starting line, take one step, and say ‘that’s that then!’ The Corinthians had fallen for this. They thought they had arrived. No-one was fooled but themselves.

Today, people are looking for a meaningful journey to enter and engage in. Most searchers are not looking to join a club who know they are right. People look for leadership and direction. They need to find people who are followers, not simply believers in, Jesus Christ.

Empowered weakness

Reading 1 Corinthians 3 & 4 for yesterday's preaching makes me freshly aware of the heart of Paul’s appreciation of Jesus. He really does resonate with Jesus’ own teaching in the Gospels. He’s calling people to a life of ‘empowered weakness’ - a life where the power of God is not understood in terms of attaining private goals or goods, but in being strengthened to walk the way of Jesus Christ.

The trip to Bulgaria brought the focus on this right back for me. To minister to people and to touch their lives with healing, hope and a deeper understanding of the way of following Jesus. This is what ministry is all about.

Lom

2 Peter 2.1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

It is always a joy and privilege to come here to Lom. The welcome is always sincere and heartfull. This is the 6th year of bringing teams to Lom from Bristo Baptist Church. The relationships as well as ministry support in both directions continues to grow, and Stoicho will be coming with me to teach in Moscow Baptist Seminary next month.This morning, we looked at the issue of holiness and deceit. It is something God has been speaking to me in upon my heart. There are some practices that are central to the work of the Lord, such as Forgiving and humbling ourselves, in seeking to love and serve others. But a further aspect of Christian discipline is the call to holiness and avoidance of ‘deceit’ - living a lie.

‘the medium is the message’. Deceit is to be avoided
The Christian life involves being rooted in Jesus – if we are in deceit, it pulls us out off Him
The Holy Spirit is quenched by deceit – it hurts him and stops him filling us as He wants to

May the Lord show each of us any areas of deceit we need to deal with, to build our lives into credibility and effective witness. May each of us find the will to repent and be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit of God.

Seasons

righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14.7)

The changing of the seasons. The warmth of summer passing through into the cool of winter. The rhythm of God’s Creation. Truth is, though, many of us prefer one season over another. Perhaps we love the light and heat of summer. Or maybe we like to retreat inside in winter.

It’s tempting to become a ‘one season’ Christian. Perhaps with a radical, social consciousness; pursuing causes and voicing concerns. Or maybe a deeply contemplative type, reflecting on the wonder and beauty of life, meditating on Scripture and Nature and seeing the reflection of God and finding peace all around. Then there’s the one who pursues joy and exuberance, confident for God’s prosperity, healing and demon defeating.

When I see people stuck in one season, it makes me sad. They’re missing something of the majesty and beauty of what God has given us in Christ. We need to learn to thank Him and follow Christ through each and every season in life. To embrace them all. To find a place for each of them in our life and worship.

A Song for the Rich Man

(Matthew 19.16-30)
You’ve called me to a path, O God
To walk on through this land
Through full atonement I’ve been bought
To serve the Risen Lamb
To one who shows me how it is
To praise and worship you
To touch the heights of heaven
And to really bring good news

Yes the selfish life I have walked
Looking for your blessed hand
To fill my bank and give me all
My fancies could demand
But now I see another way
That changes me inside
That lets the light of God break through
This stumbling sinner's mind

No easy path do I seek
To walk on through this land
You’ve called me to a different path
From the one instincts demand
No selfish life, no earthly place
Where I can feel secure
But a path that speaks of Calvary
And that reaches to the poor

I want to tell you now, O God
It’s no small thing you demand
For me on follow on the way
Of that Galilean band
Yet a journey from my bankrupcy
Entices me to life
To walk forever as a friend
Of the One called Jesus Christ

A Son of man He truly was
Right human to the core
But the Son of God He’s proved to be
Through all that He endured
With righteousness and justice
He faced the cunning rich
And from conflict with the darkness
He never once did flinch

So take me God and fill me
With your Holy Spirit’s power
And guide me now with those around
To walk His path right now
Help me to see and love the truth
That You’ve called me now to own
To bless and help and heal and serve
And carry your Shalom

Choosing Life

If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8.13)

We have a choice. We can live the life of Christian hypocrites, or live a life characterised by the presence and the ministry of Jesus Christ. And if we choose the latter, we can only succeed by the enabling presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is described as Holy for good reason. We can be enamoured by and desire to see signs and wonders, and this is potentially good. But if this is not set in the context of prioritising holiness, it can and will be disasterous. Holiness is the context that allows what we do do carry the flavour and savour of Jesus Christ.

And for this we need the Holy Spirit. We need to seek Him. Thirst for Him. Ask the Father to pour Him out, through Jesus Christ. We must learn to yearn, as the Christians at the first Pentecost had yearned. And we must not stop yearning until the HOLY Spirit breaks through to touch our lives with holiness.

But we also need to desire to walk this way. The outworking of holiness in our lives is not automatic. There has to be a harnessing. A discipline to seek Him and then, when He comes, to walk with Him.

At the Reformation, the Reformers saw something of this. Martin Luther saw our absolute inability to please God of ourselves, or to walk the way of Christ. John Calvin sensed it and argued that Christians should seek to walk in the guidelines of the Law of God. But it was the anabaptists who most clearly grasped it - that Chriatians are called to walk Holy lives, which can be enabled only when we seek the Spirit and resolve to change the way we live.

A prayer

Lord, this day help me to see and recognise afresh the way of Jesus Christ. By Your Spirit, let me sense true holiness. And strengthen me in my will, that by Your Holy Spirit's enabling, I should walk that way.

In Jesus' name, Amen

Marriage matters?

Matthew 19.1-15

This passage is about a lot more than marriage! It invites us to recognise:

A. the Cosmos as it is - There is a tension between what God desires for us - what was designed and intended - and the way things are. This, before anything else, is vital to see. The world as it is not as God designed it to be, or wants it to be!
People will say, ‘how can there be a God if ......’ And we have to point out that things as they are do not reflect God as He is!

B. The relationship of Law to Christianity - the 10 commandments and all that comes with them - is about dealing with our flawed society. Conformity to the Law is expedience, not excellence. Laws work to compensate for, not solve, human sin. It’s not possible to legislate a Christian society into existence.

C. The Kingdom of Heaven -
not an ‘afterlife’, above the clouds
not a world state, enforced by ‘divine’ Law

The Kingdom of Heaven is met with and found in the process of bringing the presence and the influence of God into this world, in new and significant ways. What matters are the ‘drivers’ in our lives. Drivers that enables power and resources to find expression in purposes and results. The drivers that implement the ‘Jesus way’ in and through our lives.

What are the key drivers?

The present passage is part of a discourse about being ‘childlike’ that goes all the way back to Matthew 18.1. It is not power that defines the Kingdom of God, or is its ‘driver’. The drivers are to be:

18.1-14 Humbling ourselves:

recognising the ‘other’
doing the will of God

18.15-35 Forgiving & reconciling

It is by using these drivers that we can channel our creativity and energy, our latent skills and abilities, for service in God’s Kingdom.

Once we have established this agenda, we can talk about marriage:

1. It is good if we are not compelled by sexual instincts. Singleness is good. Singleness allows a clearer focus on pursuing the purposes of the Kingdom of Heaven. There are good things about being single.

2. Marriage recognises an explicitly sexual and social integration of a man and woman. Marriage exists as a social institution to recognise, embrace and harness instinctive desires for sex, physical intimacy and propagation. The two are to ‘become one’.

3. The invitation to live by the ‘drivers of the Kingdom of Heaven’ is upon the married couple in the same measure as it is upon the single person. There can develop a type of selfishness in marriage, as in singleness. The married Christian ‘unit’ and also the single Christian ‘unit’ are both called to walk the same path of discipleship.

A healthy Christian church will be made up both single and married people. The focus must be on living out together our calling to live by the ‘drivers’ of the Kingdom of Heaven, thereby allowing that Kingdom to touch other people around us here on earth.

A child's eye view

whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18.4)

Humbling ourselves can only be understood when we realise what it is not. Neither a lack of self confidence nor a readiness to endure humiliation is what we have here. Jesus is not speaking of something forced upon a person, by circumstances or by others. He is talking about something a person chooses: whoever humbles himself.

Jesus speaks this way because humbling himself is something that He Himself undertakes. Paul speaks, in Philippians 2.8, of how Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Humility is something that takes place deep within a person. It is an inner attitude of self abasement, placing ourselves below others: so we can look up at them. Where people can in humility consider others better than yourselves (Philippians 2.3).

And because this is an inner attitude, it is something we cannot easily detect by a person’s demeanour. It is evidenced rather by its fruit in relationships. Where genuine interest in others is expressed and pursued. An inclination to see potential, not simply faults; strengths, not simply weaknesses. This is why we, like the disciples, find it so hard to humble ourselves. It is so much easier to compete and compare, criticise and complain.

To be great in God’s eyes, Jesus invites us to adopt the perspective of the least. It’s not easy. It’s not very self-affirming. It’s a bit like taking up a cross.

Painful truth

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16.23)

Those who recognise and embrace Jesus Christ as the One in whom God meets us in our humanity are entrusted with the power of the keys, but this does not make us magicians or superheroes. To be drawn into the path of Jesus’ humanity, we are drawn into the path of suffering. It is inescapable. It is the suffering of the heart of God in the face of endemic sin, defacing and marring humanity.

Why emphasise this? Because for us, like Peter, it is easy to try and make the ‘Jesus event’ a place of escape from the pain of life. All healing and blessing and prosperity. But proclaiming and applauding such a reduced message holds the danger of creating circuses of escapist fantasy, not communities of faith. Peter, like so many, was shocked at facing the inevitable outcome of what Jesus stood for. And Jesus rebukes Him severely for this failure.

The real spiritual power of church, as community in Christ, is found when we recognise that Christ is fully involved in both the heights and the depths of human existence. He walks with us through all of this. The good and the bad. The beautiful and the ugly. Part of what God has given us is the commission to allow others to see His and our involvement in real life and all its consequences. Yes, to bring healing, health and hope of wholness. But also to recognise that there are also hurts and pains and struggles and even agony.

And if this is true for Jesus, it is also true for those who would walk His way with Him. So it is that the declaration of the via crucis - ‘the way of the cross’ - is here made. As Jesus will inevitably suffer, so too will His disciples. There is a losing of our life to be experienced. In order that the full life of Christ be entered:

Then Jesus said to his disciples,
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
(Matthew 16.24-25)

Something Different

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matthew 16.15-16)

People were wondering about Jesus. He was not fitting into their preferences and prejudices. His way of life, His attitudes and His actions didn’t conform to categories that people were used to or even wanted. He not only brought relief to people who suffered, but spoke of justice and the need to care for the poor. He didn’t play ‘power politics’ or side with the right people. He was different.

What was special in Peter’s declaration, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God’? We’ve got used to speaking about Jesus as ‘the Son of God’ as if it were an admission of His status. This is because divine status became a big issue in the 4th - 5th centuries AD, when Christianity was being explained in terms of pagan philosophy. It came to mean, ‘Jesus is really God’. But what we read here is from the 1st century AD. So what did it mean for Peter?

The Expression, ‘son of God’, is not one we find in the Old Testament. But the expression ‘sons of God’ appears in Genesis 6.2-4, where it refers to a time when people were remembered as special in the abilities they had. And here is the key. Peter is recognising there’s something different about Jesus, something that defines Him in terms of God and God’s agenda. Yes, He is different. But He’s different in a way that reflects what God is about.

If you and I are different, what makes us so? Is it because we’re religious or pious? Is it because of peculiar opinions? Or is there something about us that speaks of God and His agenda, His purpose, His presence? This is what marks people as the Sons of God: followers of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. Something of the smell of God.

Dear Father, today help me to keep my eye on the ball. Not to be obsessed about my savings. Not to be preoccupied with my preferences. Help me to look on others with your love. Let me carry hope and healing to them, through your presence in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Fragile beauty

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God

(Micah 6.8)

It’s so easy to get disgruntled with others. It happens when we get ‘out of sorts’. We start to project our own dysfunctionality onto them. Our pathologies become, as we see them, their ‘problems’ that ‘they’ need to deal with.

That’s why it’s so much easier to approach church as a consumer commodity. Somewhere people go to have our needs met and our religious sensitivities soothed. Always keeping our distance from others. And there are people who can work in such a setting.

For me, there is no future in this. I have tasted community. Both its fragility but also its beauty. Like orchids. And therefore I have turned my back on church run as organisation and institution for religious consumers, constantly searching for new ways of commodifying the Gospel so that people will decide to believe. No. I have seen what the challenge of community does for people. I have chosen community over against commmodity. Discipleship over against decisions.

Being faced with Christ’s demand to forgive and be reconciled in the face of conflict and competition changes people for the better. Where humility is honed and love is learnt. This can only happen when we approach church as community: the discipline of gathering together, seeking out each other with sensitivity, in Christ’s name.

But note this. To sustain ourselves in a journey into humility and love we first need to learn to be alone before God. To face ourselves and all our fleshly appetites, and then to yield not to them but to the God who would pour out His Spirit upon us.

So this weekend, take time to be alone with God. So that you might go on Sunday to embrace the community of Christ in humility and love. And be changed for the better.

The path to success

If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. (Matthew 18.15-21)

This morning I delighted in listening to Keith Jones, the rector of IBTS, preach from this passage. Because he preached it in a way true to Christ. I’ve heard people talk about ‘binding and loosing’ as if it was about how to get spiritual. But Keith, as always, brought us to focus on how the spiritual is only truly such when it is profoundly physical and ethical.

The Christian life is not believing about Jesus. It is believing like Jesus. Without forgiveness and reconciliation leading into life together that expresses love to others, there is neither Christian message nor mission.

To ‘bind on earth’ is to bring into concrete expression the love of God in human lives, thus bringing the presence of heaven to earth in a way that makes sense and that really affects the lives of those around us.

Has someone offended you or caused problems in any way? Seek them out. Don’t run away. Be reconciled and go forward in love. This is the way of Christian discipleship.